http://uvpafug.org/classes/dons/dons-google.html

This information was taken from course entitled “Genealogy “A LA GOOGLE” on Utah Valley PAF Users Group website: http://uvpafug.org/classes/dons/dons-google.html.

GENEALOGY "A LA GOOGLE"

 

 

This class will discuss how to use search engines, especially Google, http://www.google.com, in genealogy and family history.

ABOUT SEARCH ENGINES AND THEIR HISTORY

• Search engines began with the Internet and the World Wide Web 50 years ago
  • Search Engine History -- http://www.searchenginehistory.com/
  • A Brief History of Search Engines -- http://www.webreference.com/authoring/search_history/
• Google celebrated its 11th anniversary in Sep 2009 -- see Google's history at http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html
• Metasearch engines -- programs that search with several search engines at once
  • Dogpile -- http://www.dogpile.com/ -- searches simultaneously Google, Yahoo, Bing , and Ask
  • Mamma -- http://www.mamma.com/ -- see information about Mamma on http://www.mamma.com/info/about.html -- Mamma ranks the results by the number of times that website was found in all the search engines it searched - helpful ranking
• Different search engines frequently find a few different webpages, so it helps to search with more than one and there are hundreds of search engines -- see articles and lists of many search engines
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines
  • http://www.philb.com/webse.htm
  • http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156221
  • http://www.cyndislist.com/search.htm
• Locating Genealogical Websites with Google -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Locating_Genealogical_Websites

SEARCH TERMS IN GOOGLE

• See Google Helps at http://www.google.com/support/websearch/
• New book by Daniel M. Lynch "Google Your Family Tree" is very good -- http://www.googleyourfamilytree.com/dan_lynch.html
• Capitals don't matter in Google, so searching for "England genealogy" gives same results as searching for "england Genealogy" (without the quotes)
• Quotation marks tell Google to search for exactly that phrase, e.g. "Joseph Smith" brings back webpages with exactly that - otherwise you get pages with Josephs and pages with Smiths, but not necessarily together -- helps in searching for a particular name
  • Try typing in your own name in quotes and see what comes up.
  • Placing 1, 2, 3, ... asterisks between the search terms inside quotation marks gives results with 1, 2, 3, ... other words between.
• Plus sign: adding "+[   ]", e.g. +Utah, requires that whatever else the result pages show, they must show the term Utah
  • Helpful for finding GEDCOM files by including "+ged" or "+gedcom" and/or "+index" (since webpages with GEDCOM's usually contain an index also)
• Minus sign: writing "-[     ]", e.g. -England, tells Google to NOT include any webpages containing "England"
  • Helpful to eliminate hits, for example, if there was another person with the name you want, but who was a doctor, search for "[   name   ] -doctor -Dr" (without the quotes) to elimintate all references for the doctor
• Add "1500..1600" (without the quotes) to limit the years you are interested in
• Tilde "~" in front of the term tells Google to include any term meaning the same, e.g. searching for "~genealogy" brings back webpages containing genealogy, family history, misspellings of genealogy, and several other terms, as well
• IN: converts measures, money, etc., e.g. "1 British pound IN us money"
• Searching in particular websites
  • To search in only a particular website include "site:uvpafug.org" (without the quotes) as a search term
  • Especially helpful for large websites -- examples
    • dons site:uvpafug.org dons
    • site:www.ldschurchtemples.com "St. George"
    • "Family History Consultants" site:http://www.lds.org
    • site:www.familysearch.org "to view a digital" -- shows some of the posted digital books in the FHLC
  • To find all websites linking to a particular site, use "link:[web site]", e.g. try "link:uvpafug.org" -- shows sites linking to it
• Clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky" takes you directly to the top listed website

OTHER THINGS GOOGLE CAN DO

• To see many additional things that Google can do click on More > Even More
• Use it to correct the spelling of locations and names -- example: type in "irland" in Google and see the correction it gives
• Fulltext books on http://books.google.com/ -- example: type in your own name in quotes to see if your name occurs in any book (or use my name "Donald R. Snow" for an illustration)
• Google Tool Bar -- allows highlighting the search terms in the results so they are easy to spot
  • http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/toolbar/FT5/intl/en/index.html
  • Good short video about installing and using the Google Tool Bar on http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/genealogy-search/a-google-search-tip-that-every-genealogy-and-family-tree-researcher-should-know.html
• Easy Google Genealogy Searcher -- http://www.searchforancestors.com/google/searcher.html -- allows you to enter search terms and do various kinds of genealogy searches with Google
• Book catalogs -- example: The London FHC Book List is on Google Books at -- http://books.google.com/books?uid=18098009246498407709&hl=en
• Maps on Google
  • Show locations of parishes -- example: type "Sandbach England" (without the quotes - Sandbach is a parish in Cheshire, England) into http://maps.google.com/
  • Example of a Google User-Created map I made about the London Family History Centre
    1. Go to http://maps.google.com/
    2. Search for "London Family History Centre" (without the quotes and with the British spelling Centre)
    3. On the result "London Family History Centre, click on "...More Info"
    4. Scroll down to the bottom to User Content and click on HYDE PARK CHAPEL - LDS CHURCH
    5. Shows the locations I made of helpful locations near the London FHC
    6. I set this map to be Public so anyone can view it.
  • Can make a User-Created map for where your ancestors lived, died, migrated, etc.
  • User-Created maps can be set to be public or private so only those you allow can see it
• Image searches -- http://images.google.com
  • Can search for online images of your ancestors -- just type in their name in quotation marks, e.g. "Winston Churchill"
  • Using Advanced Image search you can specify that you only want small, medium, or large images, etc.
  • Helpful info about image searches on http://amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/genealogy-image-search.html
  • Picasa 3 is free from Google -- excellent image organizer, editor, and can upload easily to the web for public or private albums
• Language translation --http://translate.google.com/
  • Write or copy foreign language text into the box and get a translation to English or vice versa
  • Can also have it translate websites to and from various languages, e.g. English to Spanish
  • Example:  To see all of FamilySearch in German copy and paste "http://www.familysearch.org" (without the quotes) into the text box field, set English to German and click Translate -- all text on the website is translated into reasonable German -- images, including pdf's, aren't translated -- translation stays on when you go to other links from there, until you type a new URL in the browser address field or enter a search term
  • Example:  To see all my class notes in Spanish copy and paste "http://uvpafug.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html" (without the quotes) into the text box field, set English to Spanish, click Translate -- shows all my notes and linked webpages translated into Spanish -- returns to English when you type a new URL into the browser address box
• See what the world is searching for -- http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
  • Type search terms "~genealogy" (without the quotes) and "United States", "Illinois" and see the order of metro areas in Illinois that have been searching for "genealogy" and the terms they have been searching for
• Google Directory -- http://www.google.co.uk/dirhp?hl=en
  • Searches only in websites selected by Google's volunteer editors, so it misses much of what is of interest and only finds what their editors think is important
  • Category for Genealogy is under Society and is limited to searching about 8000 websites, so this really limits the results, but this may be helpful sometimes

MISCELLANEOUS AND OTHER SEARCH ENGINES FOR GENEALOGY

• Some of the above approaches work with other search engines, but not all -- need to read their Helps
• Clusty -- http://www.clusty.com -- clusters the results so you can find the category more easily -- Much better than Google's Directory searches
• Google Labs -- http://labs.google.com/ -- "Google's Technology Playground"
  • Experimental Search has some new search approaches that may be helpful
• Setting up a Custom Search Engine to search just the sites you want -- http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
• Google Special Searches -- http://www.google.co.uk/options/specialsearches.html -- searching public, government, and university searches
• Yahoo Babelfish text and website translation -- http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
• Top Genealogy Search Engines and Directories -- http://www.academic-genealogy.com/topsearchenginesdirectories.htm
• Recent CNN article that using Google is good for your brain -- http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/14/google.brain/index.html

CONCLUSION

• Internet search engines are extremely helpful in genealogy for many purposes and Google, in particular, has many uses with new ones being added all the time.
• If you don't find what you are looking for with one search engine (e.g. Google), try another one, since each searches differently and finds a few things different than the others.